Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Wine on Whidbey WoW

Whidbey is fast becoming a wine destination in the Puget Sound. That suits us just perfectly here at the Lovejoy Inn. We enjoy wine. We can use a few descriptive words like “jammy”, “oaky” “spicy”, “earthy” and “mmmm.” Our Coupeville neighborhood wine merchant, Beth at the Bayleaf, says in a friendly way that we are more “quantity than quality” – I can’t exactly argue with her. She has introduced us to some wonderful red wines from Spain (Tempranillo and Garnacha), affordable dry and citrusy Italian bubbly (Prosecco). We also pick up local wines from the Bayleaf, usually Whidbey Island Winery and Greenbank Cellars.

But that’s not all . . . there are now 6 wineries on Whidbey Island (two more opening next year) and 3 with vineyards. http://www.whidbeyislandvintners.org/Last week I tasted a Pinot Noir with grapes grown on Whidbey and it was excellent. There’s also some nice white varietals grown here - Sieggerabbe, Madeleine Angevine, and Pinot Gris. There are at least 4 great wineshops around the island.

Link: Seattle Times story: Whidbey Island's got grape expectationsI started writing about this because one of our guests yesterday was here for a digital photography class that featured Whidbey wines, vineyards, wineries and local food. She had field trips to a local farm, a restaurant that features food from that farm, a lavender farm, two wineries, two vineyards, two wine shops, 1 cheese shop – the entire time taking photographs, drinking and eating. The class was taught by professional photographer Jan Goff-LaFontaine through Coupeville’s own Pacific Northwest Art School. I think I would sign up for any class that paired food and wine – (Intro to Statistics with . . .)